The present invention relates generally to motorized apparatus for cleaning floors and similar surfaces and more particularly to such apparatus specifically adapted for work on grouted tile floors and surfaces.
There are a wide variety of well-known conventional types of apparatus wherein a motor driven rotatable brush or brushes are provided for scrubbing or otherwise cleaning various floor surfaces. Primarily, such floor cleaning apparatus are designed and intended for use on carpeted floor surfaces or, to a lesser extent, on wood or synthetic floor surfaces. Such apparatus generally perform entirely satisfactorily for the cleaning applications for which they are intended. However, there exists no known motorized scrubbing apparatus designed and effective for cleaning conventional tile surfaces of the type wherein a plurality of individual tiles are arranged and joined coplanarly by a cementitious material called grout. Such floor surfaces are typically employed in bathrooms, locker rooms and like areas.
In the conventional formation of such floor surfaces, the individual tiles are normally arranged uniformly at spacings from each other with the adhering grout material exposed in such spacings recessed from the outward tile surfaces. As a result, most of the dirt and debris on such tile floors tend to accumulate and concentrate predominantly in the grout areas. The amount and concentration of dirt and debris in the grout areas present significant problems in the cleaning of such tile surfaces, which problems are compounded by the recessed nature and relatively rough surface texture of the grout areas. Accordingly, conventional types of floor cleaning apparatus are entirely inappropriate and ineffective in cleaning such tile surfaces. Furthermore, no specialized apparatus for cleaning such surfaces is known to be available or to have been proposed. Instead, tile surfaces of the type herein concerned are conventionally cleaned by either manual scrubbing, which is time consuming, laborious and generally distasteful, or by the application of relatively strong chemical compositions. These chemical compositions, while effective for the intended purpose, may be toxic or harmful to humans, and require special and careful handling and use, thereby significantly increasing the cost of cleaning such tile surfaces.
In contrast, the present invention provides a novel motorized apparatus having a brush member particularly designed for cleaning the grout and tile surfaces of conventional tile floors.
Briefly described, the tile surface cleaning apparatus of the present invention includes a frame, an elongated brush member rotatably mounted thereon for engagement with the tile surface, and a driving arrangement, e.g. a motor, mounted on the frame for rotating the brush member in engagement with the tile surface. The brush member is provided with first bristles arranged circularly about the brush member at spacings along its length for cleaning engagement in the recessed grout areas and second bristles arranged about the brush member intermediately of the first bristles for cleaning engagement with the outward surfaces of the tiles.
In the preferred embodiment, the brush member is cylindrical and is mounted beneath the forward end of the frame. The first bristles are arranged in circular rows around the full periphery of the brush member at spacings along the length thereof substantially equal to or an integral multiple of the spacings between the grout lines. The second bristles are arranged in a plurality of correspondingly spiraled rows extending along the brush member intermediately of the circularly arranged bristle rows at substantially equal spacings about the periphery of the brush member with each spiraled bristle row making at least one substantially full spiral about the brush member. Individual bristles in the circularly arranged bristle rows are relatively longer and stiffer than those in the spirally arranged bristle rows for cleaning engagement of the circularly arranged bristle rows with the recessed grout lines and for cleaning engagement of the spirally arranged bristle rows with the outward tile surfaces. In one preferred embodiment, the bristles in the circularly arranged rows have a length of about one inch (1") while those bristles in the spirally arranged rows have a length of about seven-eighths of an inch (7/8").
Preferably, casters or other wheels are mounted dependingly from the rearward end of the frame for rollingly supporting the frame on the tile surface cooperatively with the brush member. A handle is affixed to and extends rearwardly from the frame for permitting manual control of the rolling movement of the frame on the tile surface.